Tuesday, 22 June 2010

Day 12 - Montshiwa

"South African children making a football from scraps". (The picture is "courtesy of Alive and Kicking")

The Parish of Kidlington with Hampton Poyle is linked to All Saints' Montshiwa and has been running a "Fund a Football" appeal to enable the distribution of footballs to some of the poorest children in Kimberley & Kuruman in June. From their link parish they are also supporting leagues for under 12s, under 14s, under 17s, supplying small equipment, and arranging coaching in the Mafikeng area, for both boys and girls. Schools will be shut in June and July because of the World Cup, yet most of these children will never even see the matches on television, and may have little to do and little to eat at the coldest part of the year. Especially for the thousands of orphans, this project will give a focus to their time out of school, and provide a safe place to be.

The aim in the near future is to use this base to incorporate HIV prevention teaching into the coaching, and for this to be part of a wider initiative seeking a safer and more positive structure for the OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children).

The link between Kidlington with Hampton Poyle and All Saints, Montshiwa has developed over the years. Group visits have taken place between the parishes. Kidlington was represented at the “Diocesan Family Weekend” in Mmabatho in September, 2005 and in Taung in 2009, and a group of 33 from Montshiwa visited Kidlington in July, 2006. The parish has also been supporting “Molema Memorial School” in the area, by supplying basic teaching materials, a suitable English course, and copies of “You, Me and HIV” a book designed for South African children to instruct in the understanding and prevention of AIDS.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS is such an overriding problem in this very deprived area of South Africa, that the parish of Kidlington is currently concentrating its efforts on this topic. The “Mowana Project”, using puppets made from discarded materials, is currently been tried out in Montshiwa, to educate illiterate people in prevention. A group of parishioners also visited projects in Johannesburg in March 2007 to study ways of approaching this vital subject.

In reponse to some of the needs in South Africa an organisation ACHIVA was set up in the UK by Kathryn Ellis, also a member of the Oxford Diocesan Link Committee, to develop some of the project work with those suffering from HIV/AIDS http://www.achiva.org.uk/ this includes the puppet ministry, a peer education programme and contact with other agencies doing similar work in South Africa.

Please pray:

for all the sad and abused children, robbed of their parents by AIDS, who will be hungry, cold, and missing the safety of their school environment in June and July.

for the continued development of the Kidlington Montshiwa link

for those involved in Peer Education

for the Mothers' Union in its responsibilities for baptism preparation and work with young people across the diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman

for the work of Achiva in partnership with the Diocese of Kimberley and Kuruman and other agencies